Inspired by Gabriel, who suggest that one (of the many) Pippo Inzaghi WAGs be featured this week in tribute to the Milan man's Goal Scoring Greatness, and by Linda, who said it might have been this very WAG who led to the falling of out of BFFs Pippo n Bobo, I present to you Ms.

Meet Melissa Satta, the young (and I do mean young) Italian-American model who has won the heart of Christian Vieri they've been together over a year which, in Bobo Years, is actually a decade and a half. In terms of his relationships, it's as if they've already retired together.

Satta is 21 for those of you bad at math, that's less than half her man's age and has been modeling since she was a teeager.

Today, ladies and gentleman, our beloved Christian "Bobo" Vieri turns 34 years old. I realize it seems fundamentally impossible for him to be that old, but I doubled-checked and it's the honest truth. Clearly, we need to do something special to recognize the Birth of Bobo and, once I ruled out pouring some of my 40 on the ground for him (The requirement that the homie be dead slipped my mind at first.

I always feel a little guilty for revisiting previous WAGs, but Elisabetta Canalis' original appearance was way back in February, so I feel sort of OK about it in this case. Plus, she's dated The Great Bobo, which I probably means she should get a perpetual pass, no matter what the offense might be.

Apart from being one of Bobo's exes, Ms.

I know very little about Debora Salvalaggio, apart from the fact that she once dated our favorite aging partyboy, Christian Vieri (in fact, I found her name on a site which detailed "The Harem of Bobo"). Not only that, but according to at least one website, she's also dating his surprisingly man-whorish BFF Pippo Inzaghi. Yeah, that's a little dirty.

That refers to both the match and Antonio Cassano, but mostly to Cassano, who had a meltdown of truly spectacular proportions when he got a card (for dissent, of course) and realized he would be suspended for the Roma match next weekend. It was so bad it was actually almost impossible to watch there was screaming, crying, and kneeling on the ground and pounding it with his fist.

I am going to preface this by telling you that a lot my information is coming from a combination of Google translate, wordreference.com, and an actual, paper dictionary. Point being, I could have it all mixed up and terribly, terribly wrong. Ok, that said, I think a jealousy-crazy ex assaulted Francesco Coco and his female companion last night. And when I say "assulted," I mean the woman went after them with a knife.

Fiorentina dominated long stretches of their away match with AEK Athens today, coming away with a creditable 1-1 draw that keeps them top of Group B with two rounds left to play (the Viola will be off on the next Matchday, not playing in Europe again until December 20).

The first half was reported a lively one with both teams threatening; the Viola opened the scoring on the half hour mark through Pablo Daniel Osvaldo, who put strike partner Bobo Vieri's accurate through pass past the hesitant Marcelo Moretto in the AEK goal.

Two sure signs Raymond Domenech is insane: 1)Philippe Mexes doesn't have a regular spot in the French national team, and 2)Sebastian Frey is currently FOURTH on their goalkeeping depth chart.

Moving on. Holy shit, what a game I don't know about you people, but my heart is still pounding. Despite the periodic flurries of giveaways in the midfield, the skill on display between those two teams was enough to take your breath away, particularly among the young Italians like Aquilani (who came on and was immediately involved in a goal) and Montolivo, whose intelligence and poise is just completely ridiculous.

Well, damn Bobo came within about three minutes of being a hero in Spain this afternoon. As disappointing as a draw is after having come so close to a win, though, if you'd had offered Prandelli a point before the match, particularly with the injuries the Viola are carrying, he'd surely have taken it and, painful or not, 1-1 is a great away result against this quality opposition.

I'm not sure I can be coherent about this match, but it was fantastic, and Fiorentina won 1-0 on a 61st minute goal from Bobo Vieri. It was his first start of the Serie A campaign, and for most of the match he was well-contained by Paolo Cannavaro, who was superb, but he got away once, and that was all the Viola needed: Adrian Mutu decided not to fall down and actually played, beating the defender to the endline on the left and pulling in back for Bobo, who used his trusty left foot to knock it into the back of the net.

Well, Fiorentina got the dull away draw they apparently wanted it may have said 4-3-3 on paper, but what they actually played for most of the match was 4-5-1, with Giampaolo Pazzini stranded up top and a rickety, second-choice backline. Reggina, on the other hand, continued their incredible progress under new coach Renzo Ulivieri, taking their fifth point from his first three matches, two of which have been draws against good teams (this match and the one against Genoa).

Barely 48 hours ago, we lit the Bobo Signal in a desperate search for our favorite debauched striker and, lo and behold, he's surfaced! And no, I don't mean on the beach, or at a wildly cool bar none of us could even find, let alone drink in he's in the actual football news and, just maybe, on his way to Rome.

Sadly for Chris and his follow Romanisti, however, the rumor has it that Bobo is headed to the other side of town, where he'll make a Shock!

But, since beggars can't be choosers, this is going to have to do for the moment: Badass Atalanta striker Riccardo Zampagna is facing drunk driving (or, as you Brits would say, "drink driving") charges in Bergamo after driving into a woman riding a moped in the wee hours of Friday night/Saturday morning.*

According to rampant Italian press reports, Zampagna was on his way home from a party (Organized by a group of Atlanta ultras who will now get tshirts printed that say "We party so hard, we got a striker arrested!

For the first part of the summer, we could count on Spurs to pop in whenever there was a big name Serie A player looking to make a move: Whether the English club actually wanted to player or not, the papers in England were eager to associate them with a bid. Shockingly, not one of the rumors has turned out to have even a grain of truth in it, but I suppose hope springs eternal in London.

•I did NOT make that up, by the way. One of the unofficial Fiorentina sites has lost its damn mind.

•After nearly two months of wandering in the transfer desert, temporarily-Roma winger Christian Wilhelmsson has finally found a new home: He's reportedly headed to Bolton on (another) loan from Nantes.

•We'll supposedly know by the middle of next week where Brazilian boy wonder Pato will be playing next year.

When Francesco Coco revealed last week (You have no idea if this is going to be the porn or reality TV part, do you?) that he was quitting football to become a film star, one assumed he a)meant something beyond the (alleged) gay orgy photographers (allegedly) caught him in the midst of last year, and b)that he'd actually make, you know, films.

•Luca Toni continues to completely own the Bundesliga, scoring his fifth goal over the weekend, while wee Giuseppe Rossi scored one and setting up another in about 20 minutes for Villareal, both of them leaving us wondering what would have happened if they'd stayed home. (And no, I don't mean New Jersey in Rossi's case.)

•Crowd trouble at Napoli's Stadio San Paolo last night has led the FIGC to close the ground entirely for Sunday's match against Genoa.

Jesus, Fiorentina are good. I know Siena are in the bottom four and didn't pose that much of a challenge, but the Viola in the first half were easily as good as any team team in Serie A, and would have been trouble no matter who they were playing. They play magical, one-touch football, and have such a young, skilled core that their target of seriously competing for the Scudetto in 2010 seems almost laughable conservative.

Me, I'm thankful for Bobo (among other things) and for the fact that Fabio Capello thinks he "could be the trump card" for Italy's Euro 2008 campaign. Whatever you're grateful for and however you're celebrating the day, enjoy it. I'll see you tomorrow (though you might not recognized me, because I'll be at least eight pounds fatter).

Fiorentina face AEK Athens today in great shape to move on the UEFA Cup, needing a win to go through to the next round with a match remaining. They're currently top of Group C but, since three of the five teams will move on, even an unimaginable collapse against tiny Mladá Boleslav (yes, I know, they did beat Palermo) on Matchday 5 probably wouldn't knock them out.

•Man City are in the picture for Adriano again. Well, maybe anyway this time the interest is official, with no less an authority that Thaksin Shinawatra putting his name forward.

•More on the Davide Marchini saga: His agent/mouthpiece Lorenzo Marronaro is now suggesting Cagliari president Massimo Cellino is the problem in the relationship between player and club, since Marchini is not "the first employee to have trouble with Cellino.

You know, it's rare these days for a transfer to happen truly out of nowhere. There are so many damn websites and newspapers spitting out rumors that almost everything has been discussed before it happens, and it's almost impossible to be surprised by any names you hear. This one, though is a giant freaking surprise: Our beloved Christian Veiri is going to Fiorentina, ostensibly as support for their young strike force.

There's almost nothing significant going on in the Serie A universe today. I'm thinking it's gotten really hot in Italy, and everyone has headed out for a long weekend at a posh, Mediterranian resort. Either that or there's another newspaper strike and there's TONS going on but no one to tell us about it.

•The moment Milan landed Pato, the press starting banging on Massimo Moratti's door, asking him when he was going to land a teenage superstar.

•Less than ten minutes into his first match with Fiorentina, Christian Vieri scored. As if he'd do anything else.

•Despite coach Walter Mazzari's denials yesterday, the Sampdoria brass are still talking about the possible arrival of Antonio Cassano, praising the striker and trying to use public pressure to convince Real Madrid to assume an even greater percentage of his burdensome salary in order to make the move possible.

Empoli opened their first-ever European adventure in fantastic fashion, beating FC Zurich (Not to be confused with that other Zurich team, the dreaded Grasshoppers.) 2-1 at home, with an almost entirely second-choice team. Woo hoo! Reports indicated Empoli's youngsters thoroughly dominated the game, and that the win was well-deserved. Palermo also managed a win, narrowly defeating Czech side Mlada Boleslav on an injury-time winner by Bosko Jankovic (BOSKO!

Four Italian sides Sampdoria, Empoli, Fiorentina and Palermo are in action today in the UEFA Cup, all four with have a good chance to go through to the next round. Since I doubt many of you really care, I'll spare you the full preview (a roundup of results from the first leg is here), but Palermo are at home with a 1-0 aggregate lead and are the most stoked of the bunch going into today's matches.

And, just like that, Italy have gone down to one club in the UEFA Cup. Empoli were thrashed in Switzerland, Palermo struggled to a loss in PKs, and Sampdoria failed to score at Aalborg and went out on away goals. Fiorentina, however, squeaked through on PKs, and will be Serie A's lonely representative in the Cup's group stages. Woo hoo!

After securing a great 2-1 home win in the first leg against FC Zurich, Empoli returned to their senses today and suffered a misleadingly lopsided loss to the Swiss side, going out 4-2 on aggregate.

The noise inside the Stadio Franchi must have been deafening for Juve their fans weren't allowed to travel, and the place was completely packed with rabid Fiorentina fans who nearly lost their collective minds when Mutu (barely) put away his late penalty to secure a point.

The Viola opened the match comfortably controlling possession, but they failed to make much of it, with Franco Semioli, Adrian Mutu and Giampaolo Pazzini failing to link up effectively, and long balls over the top going for naught (over and over and over again).

•Despite the wins over Georgia and South Africa, Italy have fallen to third in FIFA's ranking, behind both Argentina and Brazil. Curses! This has nothing to do with Brazil and Argentina actually being way, way better than the Azzurri rather, it's because big wins from last year have essentially expired in FIFA math, so Italy lost over 100 magic FIFA points last month and dropped off the top.

Stop press, everyone: Francesco Coco is done with his stint on I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! (An adventure that, from what I can tell, consisted of fondling himself, spending time with gay men,*and being incredibly, overpoweringly boring) and ready to come back to football. Yes, that's right: He got over his Hollywood dream without ever actually going to Hollywood, and is prepared once again to shine his ever-dimming light on Serie A.

The old men were on fire in Florence tonight, with Martin Jorgensen grabbing a brace, and Bobo Vieri scoring in his second straight UEFA Cup match, leading an under-strength Fiorentina side to a 6-1 win over shell-shocked Elfsborg.

Burdened by both injuries and a need to rest some regulars, Cesare Prandelli started little-used defenders Anthony Vanden Borre and Federico Balzaretti, and paired Bobo with youngster Pablo Daniel Osvaldo up top.

Great performance, great result for Inter; frustration and disappointment for the Viola who, after having a lot of the game in the first half, were just played off the pitch in the second. In the opening 45 minutes, Fiorentina had the majority of possession and were around the Inter box a lot, the problem was that most of the balls played in were lobs at which everyone had a chance, rather than incisive passes to feet.

•Claudio Ranieri is quoted in the press as saying Juve were "forced" into buying Tiago when the high price tage Liverpool slapped on Mohamed Sissoko (who Juve were chasing fully a year ago) made them look elsewhere for midfield help. Boy, I'm sure that makes Tiago feel really great about being there.

When Antonio Cassano went down over the weekend in a friendly against Swiss side Bellinzona one organized in large part to help him get fit it was feared his leg injury was severe enough to keep him out for "several weeks," a dismal occurrence for a player so desperate to make a fresh start. Depending on who you believe, the latest is either a great relief or sad news for the "unruly striker," because some people say he'll be out only for a couple weeks, while others are reporting he'll be on the shelf for a full month.

This first half of this match was pretty dismal a stop-start, boring, sloppy waste of time. The only reason a goal was scored is because an Atalanta defender managed to take out everyone in goal mouth when the ball was coming, and it trickled it because there was no one to stop it it wasn't as if there was a convincing shot on a goal, or anything.

Note: I've got meetings all day then am getting on a plane; normal service will resume tomorrow.

In case you missed it, our beloved Bobo scored yesterday (rest assured that, once pictures are working again, there will be one of him here), an event which we should all be celebrating by drinking heavily and behaving inappropriately today, work be damned.

Jesus, what is it with watch-muggings in Italy? Poor Bobo Vieri was held up back in February for his outrageously expensive watch (Seriously. It was worth €16,000. That's, like, a small car, for the love of God), and just today the great Serse Cosmi was robbed getting out of his car in the middle of Brescia, and had two Rolexes stolen.

[As you may have heard, Fiorentina are still in the UEFA Cup. As you also may have heard, I'm sort of a fan. So, yes, I am going to pay attention to it and treat it like it matters. Sorry, haters.]

The Viola are in Spain today ahead of their first match of the UEFA Cup group stages, preparing to face Villarreal, the team that is, according to UEFA math, the best side in the tournament.

On paper, I suppose a 0-0 draw away to a midtable side is acceptable for Fiorentina, particularly after a tough match on Thursday. That said, though, they need to learn to get something out of games like this, when the other team is physical and not allowing them any space in front of goal. If they don't, everyone is going to start doing it (See Milan, and the clogged-up midfields they face every week), and no matter how much Mutu and Pazzini cry, nothing's going to change until they adjust.